Poker gets real on set of ‘Molly’s Game’

Director Aaron Sorkin says his film, “Molly’s Game,” isn’t a poker movie. After seeing it, I agree, but the poker scenes in it are realistic — because the actors played for real money.

On several days, for a half hour at the end of shooting, the professional poker players hired to play bit roles in the film got to compete for a cash prize while cameras rolled. Whoever had the most chips at the end of that half hour got a check from Sorkin — he didn’t say how much — and Sorkin got scenes for his movie, which was released nationally earlier this month.

“I knew that they were competitors, so it couldn’t be for monopoly money that they were playing,” Sorkin told CinemaBlend.com. “I tacked a check to the wall and said, ‘Whoever has the most chips at the end of this is going home with this check.’ Turns out you don’t need to motivate poker players that much (for them) to start wanting to kill each other.”

Though there aren’t any celebrity poker players in the film — such as World Series of Poker champ Johnny Chan, who appeared in “Rounders” — there are a number of minor poker pros and other regular players.

Sorkin, known for his blistering dialogue, learned poker terms like “tilt” and demonstrates this when a player goes off the rails after losing to an amateur’s bluff and later flopping a full house but losing to a bigger full house on the river (final card turned in Texas hold ’em).

And Sorkin comprehends the term “pot committed,” when a player has so many chips in the pot he feels he has to be willing to go all in. This becomes a theme for “Molly’s Game.”

The film also gets it right when Molly, played by Jessica Chastain, learns that Michael Cera’s character is bankrolling another player at the high-stakes table. Molly knows that this could affect the integrity of the game and confronts Cera’s character. His response is vicious.

Finally, the film understands the legal ramifications of poker being a skill game. According to U.S. gambling laws, games of skill are legal, unless the host is charging a fee to play or collecting a rake, whereby a small percentage of each pot is retained for the house.

It’s no surprise that Sorkin mastered the lingo of poker, whether or not he’s mastered the game. He’s known for his writing prowess in films such as “The Social Network” and TV series like “The Newsroom” and “The West Wing.”

Hardcore gamblers may wish “Molly’s Game” had more action at the table, but it’s an engaging film and the poker scenes feel authentic. In the end, that’s enough.